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Posted on 02/27/2008 9:27:04 AM PST by tang0r
The best way to encourage the market development of clean energy technology is by charging a price for carbon emissions. Unfortunately for anti-tax libertarians like myself, economists know that the only way to charge a price for carbon emissions is by implementing a carbon tax. But unlike most taxes, which are implemented solely to make the government money and/or to punish an otherwise harmless activity, a carbon tax would punish an actually harmful activity and simultaneously create a market incentive for a technological solution to develop in response. A carbon tax, properly applied, would charge all major carbon emitters a per-ton price for their CO2 emissions. Carbon offsets would be tax-deductible, so that any business that offsets one ton in CO2 emissions would be able to deduct the cost of the innovation. (Carbon offsetting is an emerging market, with companies such as TerraPass selling environmental projects to "offset" one ton of CO2 emissions, ranging in price from $2-$15 per ton.) By pricing CO2 emissions, the carbon tax would create a seamless market-based incentive for large emitters to develop low-carbon technology.
Most importantly, the carbon tax rate should be set as close as possible to the actual economic cost of carbon emissions, and not set by the whims of opportunistic and grandstanding politicians. This organization proposes that the carbon tax rate should be set as the lower of two indices - first, an average market index for carbon offsets (in essence, the market price of economically feasible mitigation) and second, an average American scientific/economic consensus index of the per-ton cost per ton of CO2 (often called the "social cost of carbon").
(Excerpt) Read more at payyourairshare.org ...
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Wow! The writer lost me in his very first sentence!
Since when is a world-government mandated tax “the market”?
If this guy’s a libertarian, I’m in bizarro world.
and not set by the whims of opportunistic and grandstanding politicians.
How naive can you get. This guy is a baby politically, scientifically, and economically.
I’ve seen that the Arctic ice sheet is back to normal. I’ve read where the “global temperature” dropped last year.
I’ve read where the sun’s activity is at a low and it missed a peak that usually happens every 11 years.
I am freezing my butt off, it’s February 27th and it’s 18* with a foot of global warming on the ground.
When does it stop? When do the sheeple notice and start laughing in the face of the Algorians?
I would bet big money that there is no global warming. In fact, I suspect that the next 10 years will be a cooling. Just not sure how to make money on this.
I’ve got a feeling that a lot of these carbon offsetter guys used to sell used cars.
The term "shameless liar" doesn't even begin to give him justice.
The sun will solve this problem quick enough. Soon we will be paying people to pump CO2 into the air.
Good News: The international scientific consensus on climate change science has recently shifted, and once contentious division has now shifted to peaceful consensus.
He only says he’s libertarian because he smokes pot and wants it legal. That would explain the moronic crap he’s putting out.
Hah, that's a laugh. BTW, they could sell you some ocean front property and a bridge too.
Obviously he is not an anti-tax libertarian, and obviously he doesn't understand ANYTHING about economics, including the intents or consequences of taxes. He is an idiot if he actually believes that a carbon-tax or carbon-offset credits create market incentives for "technological solutions". In these two sentences, the author completely discredits anything else he might say afterward.
The high in Houston was 81 on Monday .. down to a more managable 58 today, back up to the 70's for the rest of the week.
Glad I got out of yankeeland as a youngster, heat might be uncomfortable but cold hurts.
He and Geraldo both.
Pair your air share = wit from an air head.
“Climate change?”
Stuck yer head outdoors lately???
Just like they were pumping hydrocarbons into the air to promote ozone formation - even as we put catalysts on cars to prevent hydrocarbons in the air!
By the time the politicians get this nonsense passed, we'll be starting another decades-long cold spell.
And it will still be Bush's fault, for tinkering with the sunspots.
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